[labard1]

I don't know where people are reading their history these days, but it's hard to believe the Wilderness is considered a Grant victory. Perhaps the New York Times is the source.

[Non-Sequitur]

I don't know where people are reading their history these days, but it's hard to believe the Wilderness is considered a Grant victory.

It was a victory in the same manner that Lee's campaign on the Penninsula in 1862 was a victory. Grant took the initiative and held it, in spite of casualties, just as Lee had done. Grant forced Lee to react rather than act, as Lee did to McClellan. Lee retreated time and again, relentlessly pursued by the Union army. He never had the upper hand. That is why it was a victory, NY Times notwithstanding. From the moment Grant started south in May 1865 until the day he surrendered, Lee never once held the initiative. He never had a chance to win, and he knew it.